Month: March 2016

Trump supporter Shane Alcorn was interviewed by Carl Dyke outside the Donald Trump Rally at the Crown Coliseum, March 9, 2016. Because of a glitch in the recording equipment, the interview was cut off around the nine-minute mark.

Donald Trump came to Fayetteville twice in 2016. His rally on March 9, 2016 came soon after his victories in the “Super Tuesday” primaries enshrined him as the front-runner in the Republican Presidential nominating contest. This rally would gain notoriety as the one at which an African American protester was “sucker punched” (and subsequently handcuffed), amidst a more general backdrop of fraught language and seemingly increasing violence. Professors Carl Dyke and Patrick O’Neil interviewed people waiting in line to get into the rally. His rally on August 9, 2016 was more subdued, but followed his acceptance of the Republican nomination for president. Dyke and O’Neil were joined that day outside the arena by Professor Peter Murray. After Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States, interviews were conducted of his supporters to see if their opinions had changed from the time of his campaign to his presidency.

Hi there! Welcome to the Methodist University Community Oral History Project, a production of the Methodist University History Department funded by a grant from Title III. Our goal is simple and wide-ranging: to collect and preserve stories of people in and around Fayetteville, North Carolina, and think about those stories in context. Most of our oral histories will be collected by students at Methodist University, and the project’s coordinator is Patrick W. O’Neil. Feel free to contact us if you have questions, and happy listening!